To What Extent did the Compact Theory cause the Civil War?

Well I didn't plagerize on this essay, but from know on I will just read ahead of time and write the essay without outside materials.

During the early nineteenth century, the early years of the American government, there were large conflicts as to how strong the federal government would be in relation to the states’ government. A strong federal group in the early American democracy was the Hamiltonians. Followers of this group consisted of federalists who were strong advocates for the Contract Theory, where the people not the states held power over the government. In opposition to the Contract Theory was the Jeffersonians. The Jeffersonians advocated for the Compact Theory, which felt that the states held power over the federal government and should be allowed to declare any laws of the federal government null and void if they felt they were unconstitutional. Over history there were a multitude of efforts by both the Compact and Contract Theorists to implement their beliefs into the youthful American government. The Compact Theory would later be applied in the Civil War by the states’ feeling they had the right to secede from the federal government. The Civil war was remarkably caused by the efforts of the Compact Theorists through multiple labors for the implementation of states’ rights, most notably, the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions, John C. Calhoun’s protests of the “Tariff of Abominations” with the South Carolina Exposition and Protest, and South Carolina’s response to the tariff of 1832, altogether ultimately leading to secession.

One of the first great states’ rights efforts by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, both Compact Theorists, were the Virginia and Kentucky resolutions passed in 1798. These two resolutions helped bring up the idea of nullification, a huge component of the Compact Theory, by individual states refusing to comply with federal laws, specifically, the Alien and Sedition Acts. These resolutions were an enormous breakthrough for states’ rights advocates because it assisted the idea the states could declare certain federal laws null and void. The Virginia and Kentucky resolutions, although were not directly made to affect the Civil War, were a large factor in inciting the Civil War because they helped bring into play the Compact Theory which would later bring the secession of Southern states.

A tremendous states’ rights advocate was John C. Calhoun of South Carolina. The federal government had passed a protective tariff for Northern industries, known as the “Tariff of Abominations” in the South, which consequently harmed the South’s economy. In response to this, in 1828, Calhoun secretly wrote the South Carolina Exposition and Protest which fought for the idea of nullification. It openly implied that the states should ignore the tariff within the states’ limits. This protest was a great continuation of the principles of the Compact Theory. This would, in due course, assist in the secession of multiple states from the Union because they felt that it was their right as states to apply slavery and the federal government should have no position in denying it, after all there was nothing in the constitution that said slavery should be illegal.

In 1832 Congress passed another protective tariff. This tariff enraged South Carolinians. Behind their leader John C. Calhoun they declared that the tariff, essentially, did not apply to South Carolina. President Andrew Jackson, who furious about the nullification of South Carolina’s decision to simply ignore the tariff threatened invasion of South Carolina. Calhoun, noticing his awkward position, resigned from his position of Vice President. Later, next year, Congress reduced the tariff. This event, however, was a great movement in the idea of nullification and secession and was a step towards the South seceding from the Union causing the catastrophic event of the Civil War.

In conclusion, the Civil War was caused by multiple efforts of states’ rightists for the implementation of the Compact Theory. The Virginia and Kentucky resolutions were one of the first steps made by the Compact Theorists to nullify laws made by the federal government. Another very important effort made by the states’ rightists was the South Carolina Exposition and Protest passed by John C. Calhoun to give states’ the right to ignore the tariff of abominations. Lastly, the efforts by John C. Calhoun and South Carolina to declare the tariff of 1832 null and void were a tremendous step towards Southern secession. The Civil War was caused by the idea that the states’ should be allowed to ignore federal laws they saw unconstitutional, which ended up including slavery for there actually was nothing in the Constitution that forbade slavery.